INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CHINA STUDIES

Developing Social Science-based Chinese Studies in East Asia: Geopolitics, Discipline, Knowledge

Claire Seungeun LEE — 2018-08-31

For its neighbouring countries in East Asia, China has always played a vital role not only in politics, economics, trade, and cultural exchanges, but also in the development of the discipline of Chinese Studies. This paper, focussing particularly on social science studies on China, explores how geopolitical contexts play a significant role in constructing Chinese Studies as a discipline in Japan and South Korea. This study primarily argues that geopolitics influence both the development of Chinese Studies and its intellectual cohorts. This paper further argues that the field of Chinese Studies generates knowledge not only for scholars within the university domain, but also for public audiences in the non-academic public domain.

The 1990s Chinese Debates Concerning the Causes for the Collapse of the Soviet Union among PRC Soviet-watchers: The Cases of Brezhnev and Stalin

Jie LI — 2025-08-07

The breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991 has had a profound impact on China. The Soviet dissolution has had a variety of significant repercussions on Chinese politics, foreign policy, and other aspects. However, many myths about post-1991 Chinese research on the Soviet Union have been circulated and perpetuated by a body of secondary literature written by Western scholars. Some issues have been unclear or misunderstood in previous studies, and one of these inaccuracies has to do with Chinese
perceptions of the role of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

A number of the secondary sources argue that, after 1991, because of their impact on China’s 1989 pro-democracy movements as perceived by the Chinese communist regime, most Chinese Soviet-watchers considered Gorbachev and his liberalization to be the fundamental catalysts in triggering the collapse of the Soviet Union. The literature seems to agree that those Chinese scholars were univocal in assessing Gorbachev’s individual actions and failings, and that they overstated the implications of Gorbachev and his liberal programs for China.

This research reveals that since the mid-1990s, many Chinese Sovietwatchers have traced the roots of the tragedy back to the administrations of Leonid Brezhnev and Joseph Stalin, arguing that the conservative forces and the rigid communist system were the decisive factors in bringing it about – rather than the figure of Gorbachev alone. Their writings confirmed and legitimized the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s post-Tiananmen agendas of pposing leftism and saving Chinese socialism by speeding up the reform and
open door policy. By depicting that Brezhnev’s stagnation and Stalin’s rigid centralization as the primary causes of the collapse, their writings suggested that state legitimacy comes more from economic results than democratic politics. They justified that economic prosperity, not political reform, which is the reigning principle for the survival of Chinese socialism after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Rethinking the Logic of Beijing’s Divided Rules Policy toward Hong Kong and Taiwan: A Constructivist Explanation

Derek YE Xiaodi — 2018-08-31

The dynamic relations between mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan over the past few decades have attracted many scholars to explain and predict this interesting phenomenon using various theoretical approaches. Economic integration theory has received the most academic attention, anticipating that economic interdependence will generate a spillover effect on political integration. However, political reality has illustrated the inadequate explanatory power of this theory. Based on this understanding, the present article develops a new analytical framework derived from the revised social constructivism and argues that Beijing’s policy toward Hong Kong and Taiwan is a mixed strategy incorporating three dimensions, namely force, interest and legitimacy; this is labelled the ‘divided rules policy’. These three dimensions are working simultaneously and compatibly with different emphases, depending on Beijing’s assessment and judgement on the specific political situation in Hong Kong and Taiwan. To elaborate Beijing’s policy logic in realpolitik, this article considers two critical turning points that occurred in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the Hong Kong White Paper and 31 Measures, as case studies, and it predicts that the relations of mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will grow tighter than they were before.

China-Zimbabwe Trade Relations in the 21st Century: An Analysis of the Trends, Patterns and Prospects

Clayton Hazvineri VHUMBUNU — 2018-08-31

trade relations for the 16 years between years 2000 and 2016. The essence is to establish the direction of trade, trade intensity and trade composition of Zimbabwe-China trade as well as present a comparative analysis and assessment of the share of Zimbabwe-China trade vis-à-vis other trade partners. The study uses both primary and secondary data sources for analysis. The findings point to the fact that although Zimbabwe enjoyed a positive balance for the years preceding 2005, the country has since been recording widening trade deficits in its trade with China. With regard to trade intensity, the study reveals that on average, Zimbabwe’s trade with China accounts for less than 5 per cent of Zimbabwe’s trade with other African countries and the Rest of the World (RoW). In respect of trade composition, the study further found out that whilst Zimbabwean exports to China are largely dominated by the exportation of low value semi-processed and/or non-processed mining and agricultural commodities, China mainly exports high-end manufactures and consumer goods to Zimbabwe. As part of its recommendations, the study proposes the adoption of import regulation measures, exportoriented industrialization, establishment of China-Africa industrial capacity cooperation, and investment in manufacturing and industrial processing plants.

Book Review - Tom Miller, China’s Asian Dream: Empire Building along the New Silk Road

Attawat ASSAVANADDA — 2018-08-31

Tom Miller, China’s Asian Dream: Empire Building along the New Silk Road, London: Zed Books, 2017; xii + 292 pages with bibliography and index. ISBN 978-1-78360-923-9 (paperback)